Touring Tips

I’ve done a fair bit of touring now, including both islands of New Zealand, Tasmania, across the USA and mainland Australia.

I’ve put together a bit of a checklist for planning a long ride.

Tip 1

Use a GPS (this one has a wide screen and was a breeze to use) to navigate around cities and Road Atlas (Rand McNally Road Atlas) for outside cities.

This was probably the best tip I got for the ride – we used a GPS to get us in and out of the cities, and road maps the rest of the time.

That way, we lost no time trying to find our way in cities and were able to find the beautiful deserted country roads the rest of the time.

(Note: I had Harry hold the GPS and tap me on the right shoulder when I had to turn right, left shoulder for left and middle of the back to go straight ahead. That was as much about giving him some control and feeling part of the navigation than anything else – worked beautifully.)

Tip 2

Get the right gear. If you’re going somewhere cold, then get solid cold weather motorcycling gear.

Seems obvious, but a cheap pair of gloves can mean the difference between crashing and not.

Tip 3

Only pack what you really, really need.

On smaller motorbike trips of 12 days or less, I generally take the clothes I’m wearing and a couple of spare pairs of jocks and socks, and a pair of trousers.

I buy $2 t-shirts at Op Shop as I go.

You’ve got limited storage space – use it wisely.

Check out our Gear List here (with some tips – the one about putting your gear in a zip lock bag is the best/most convenient packing thing I’ve ever done.)